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Join us on our quest for the extraordinary!
Sam McKee (@polymath_sam) has 9 university qualifications across 4 subjects including doctorates in history and philosophy of science and molecular biology. He researches both at two British universities and contributes to both space science and cancer research. Meet fellow polymaths and discipline leaders working on the frontiers of research from all over the world. Be inspired to pursue knowledge and drive the world forwards.
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Sam McKee (Polymath World Channel) (00:02.35)
to the Polymath World channel. I wanted to do a reaction video that was a bit different from just defending evolution against creationists. So here we're listening to Bill Maher who I really love talking to Candice Owens and the video is called Candice Owens doesn't believe we landed on the moon. Okay so I know loads of astronauts I've worked with the space sector for quite a few years I've had an experiment
That I was involved with get flown to the International Space Station. So this always kind of amazes me, but let's let's give Candice Owens who's a political commentator. I believe let's give her her due. Let's hear her out I don't know. I don't know. I just want to know why we didn't go back. We did go back. What, did we go back? To the moon? Were we people on the moon?
Okay. I'm asking a serious question. When did we go? When did we go to people walking on the moon? landed... 69, okay. July 20th, 1969. We went back like 10 more times. Who went back? Who walked on the moon? America, you know. No, but like what were the astronauts' names? Educate me. Why? the fuck remembers what the astronauts' names were? That's a big... It's a pretty big deal to walk on the moon. The first guy, and then after that, yes. Who else walked on it? How many? I don't remember the name. Like another dozen. Yeah.
Sam McKee (Polymath World Channel) (01:31.922)
This is crazy I could probably name all 12 people who walked on the moon, but I'm horrified that I might miss someone out There we go. We've got Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong Alan Bean and Pete Conrad Apollo 13 went to the moon, didn't land very famously they amazing rescue getting back
Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, then Dave Scott, Jim Irwin I think it was, Charlie Duke and John Young, Gene Cernan and Harrison Smith. There we go. I think that's all of them. Yeah, incredible. What an incredible piece of history. I'm shocked that people don't believe it. And of course moon landing deniers, bit like flat earthers, they have all kinds of reasons and all kinds of things they're looking for.
But I think Candice Owens nails it that the biggest reason people think it was fake is because we haven't been back. And that's a mistaken leap believing that the technology doesn't exist. The technology does exist to go to the moon. We land stuff on the moon a lot. The Americans, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the Indian Space Agency, the Chinese Space Agency, Roscosmos.
private sector. I mean, we land stuff on the moon a lot. It's not like the technology doesn't exist. It's political will and it's money. I mean, what happened after the moon landings were cancelled, which is something that a lot of people associated with NASA will never forgive the government for was cancelling it. But the moon landing programs were costing
4 % of American GDP every year and that's just so much money when you consider today NASA doesn't even get half of 1 % so less than an eighth of what they were getting in the 60s and early 70s. You just can't afford it. Also the whole space sector is a lot more risk averse. You could do it with what we had in the 60s and 70s but it was very risky. I mean look at Apollo 13.
Sam McKee (Polymath World Channel) (03:44.462)
It was a very, very risky process and I don't know that we're as willing to take risks like that these days. But the reason we haven't gone back is, well, just look at history. They went to the space shuttle program. Space shuttle could not leave low Earth orbit because of how it was powered and because it was not a massive mighty rocket like the Saturn V. It could go to low Earth orbit and it could come back up to an altitude of nearly 400 miles and that was it.
And they did that. They ran the shuttle for 30 years. So you've got, let's see, building it in the 70s, first launched in 1981, the last launch of the shuttle was 2011. So that's 30 years where you're not going to the moon because you're spending your money on the shuttle. And by the end of the shuttle program, you've got the International Space Station, which cost 150 billion. It's the most expensive program ever in the history of humankind.
So you don't have the money to go to the moon then. And then after the shuttle is cancelled, they start planning other rockets, but they in turn got cancelled before development was finished. So it's only really since SpaceX has come along and the SLS more recently, which are still in progress. When the SLS is finished and ready to launch and when the Starship is human rated and ready to launch, then you can go back to the moon. And that's just talking about NASA.
not alone, let alone other other programs. But there's not been opportunity to go back to the moon because of the money and because of the hardware and the political will. But that's a shame. People are now thinking that it never happened because we haven't been back and we could have still been going, but we didn't. So
Candice Owens, yes, she needs to brush up on her moon landing history. It wasn't just once by one person and yeah, other people have debunked moon landing denials better and more fuller than I can hear, but I hope we go back and I hope that when we do go back and that it's soon, then all this moon landing denial will go away. Here's hoping. I'll be an optimist. Thanks. I look forward to seeing you next episode on Wednesday.